Kazakhstani Hearthstone Player Redeems Himself After Ban

You probably won’t spot a lot of eSports participants from countries like Kazakhstan, where the gaming culture has not entirely picked up to that extent. Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov however, was one Hearthstone player who had made it to the bigger leagues.

His career had been a pretty bumpy ride. He reached the world stages and finished in the semi final of Gfinity Spring 1 in 2015. This brought him a decent offer from Team Dignitas and he took it up. His stay at with them was short lived. Surprisingly, towards the end of April 2015, Blizzard officially announced that Naiman would be banned from the World Championship of 2015. The reason being that he had allegedly performed wintrading.

This year, his ban was lifted. And the Hearthstone player hit back strong and hard. At this year’s HCT Europe Winter Championship, Naiman took part as a contender that stood out among the less experienced players. He was all set to steal the show and position, having had global level experience. After owning his group on Saturday, he headed to the final which took place on Sunday. Not surprisingly, Naiman came out victorious after a grueling semi-final against BunnyHopper and a rather easier final.

Having won these titles, Naiman has now earned the seed for BlizzCon world finals. Standing alongside America’s champion Will “Amnesiac” Barton, he will attempt to seize the glory that he should have received a year back.